Xtracycle and the Cruzbike

[echo_anomie]

This is for discussion about the combination of the Xtracycle and the Cruzbike.

Here's some sample pics and videos:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=dtCj77zH_2A

Photos:

My own rig on flickr page.

Another one found on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockthebike/2041510534/

 

[Kamatu]

Greetings, did you have to make any adjustments to the suspension or other bike characteristics when you went from the plain Cruz to the Cruz-Xtra configuration? How much more stress does this put on various parts of the frame, if any?

 

[echo_anomie]

I tightened the suspension up as much as I could - in fact a hard-tail bike would be fine because of the extended reach softens any bumps the back wheel experiences.

Not sure about about frame stress - but it'd easily handle big loads - I dragged an old CRT monitor home on the back of it. I'm yet to talk anyone into being a passenger on the 'xtracruz'. On a normal mountain bike passengers are easy

Xtracycle and surly have partnered to make the 'Big Dummy' - which is an in one frame that is compatible with the xtracycle accessories - very nice bike - I love to see an xtracruz frame - how about it John??

 

[Kamatu]

Thanks, I like the Xtra-Cruz idea, it would fix a whole lot of things I want for my "working" bike including price, except that it may not fit on the front of the bus (I'd like to retain that flexibility) here and could cause problems with transporting it by car. I'm checking on that one by finding out the largest wheelbase bike the buses will accept.

EDIT: Did some more research and it will fit on a standard bus bike rack, but..... you have to pull the front wheel off, which might be counterproductive on a Cruz. I guess you could use a smaller frame than recommended also, but I didn't figure on how it would affect the Xtracycle parts or how small you could go. <sigh> I'll worry about this a few months. I might have to figure on riding in anyhow when I go, we might have a shot to adopt a little girl and that would change quite a few things.

 

[Flasharry]

Not having seen one of theses 'bus bike racks,' I wouldn't know if this was possible or not, but removing (and refitting) the rear wheel (instead of the front) is a very easy/quick task, especially if you fit a thin tyre so you don't need to loosen the brakes to get it out (the rear suspension will easily soak up any extra bumps from a thin tyre). Without the rear wheel, it's easy to lift the rear of the bike and wheel it onto a rack too.
Just a thought.
Stuart.

 

[JonB]

Do the back wheel of a cruzbike have to be a 26" wheel? If not it should be easier to get a lower version of the xtracycle where things mounted ontop of the tire is not so high up.

 

[Kamatu]

It looked to me like the Xtracycle wants a certain frame length rather than tire size. Now there may be some issue adapting the rear brakes, but I'm not sure.

 

[echo_anomie]

JonB wrote: Do the back wheel of a cruzbike have to be a 26" wheel? If not it should be easier to get a lower version of the xtracycle where things mounted ontop of the tire is not so high up.

I'm running 2.5 Maxxis downhill tyres (huge) which fit fine - so 700c might be doable if the 700c wheels have disk brakes.